


On Their Terms

by elisethewritingbeast



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Emma is hesitant and scared to get hurt as usual, F/M, Not yet established relationship, but I think it's cute, but Killian is...Killian and is absolutely wonderful, it's just sort of vaguely set after the kiss, maybe a few days?, no Elsa storyline, post-3B and that KISS, wakes up from a dream and seeks them out trope that we all love, we're mostly inside her head for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26555911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elisethewritingbeast/pseuds/elisethewritingbeast
Summary: Startled awake in the middle of the night, Emma finds herself at Ki-no, Hook's door at Granny's. Post The Kiss (you know the one), with both of them not quite sure of where they stand.
Relationships: Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan
Comments: 3
Kudos: 75





	On Their Terms

It wasn’t a nightmare. Or she just couldn’t remember if it  _ was _ a nightmare, but there was a lingering sensation in her throat, in her chest, in her gut. It clawed at her, ripped and tore and reminded her of every fear she’d ever had. It was unforgiving and entirely relentless, every cell in her body urging her to  _ do something _ .

So, at three-thirty in the morning, Emma Swan slipped out of her bed at the loft and crept out the door. It wasn’t a conscious decision so much as an instinctual reaction, but she headed straight for Granny’s, and she didn’t stop until she was in front of his door. 

She hesitated as her hand raised to knock, her resolve trembling, then crumbling, and suddenly it was replaced with a new, more interesting fear. Her mind shouted at her, spinning terrible possibilities of rejection and anger. He wouldn’t answer. He would tell her to leave. He’d tell her that she wasn’t worth it, like nearly everyone else in her life had done before him. 

She almost left.

But there was something that stopped her, a quieter, tinier voice in the back of her mind that allowed her to bring her fist to the door. This voice used evidence and reason against the more traitorous parts of her mind, reminding her of his promises and assurances and her certainty that he’d  _ never lied to her _ . 

So she knocked. 

And he answered.

It wasn’t as if she’d expected him to answer the door fully clothed, armed in his sweeping and signature leather jacket and that stupid vest and all of those layers, but it made her breath catch in her throat when she saw him in borrowed sweatpants and a simple t-shirt. His brace was empty, his hair askew, his blue eyes fogged with sleep. And yet he smiled at her like he always did, that wonderful and beautiful, broad grin that somehow created swarms of butterflies in her stomach and made her fears fall away like leaves in the autumn or snow in the winter or some other cheesy nature-related metaphor that she couldn’t even imagine in that moment. All she could do was watch his lips as they curled into that smile.

“Swan?” he asked, his voice rough from sleep, but not rough enough that she missed the concern in it. “Everything all right?”

It took her a few seconds to realize that she needed to reply. She’d gotten lost in his voice and his eyes and his entire presence. “Yeah, yeah,” she said quickly, berating herself for making him worry.  _ But he was worried _ . A part of her rejoiced. “Everything’s fine, I just…” 

_ Aye? _ He didn’t say the word aloud, but his eyes said it, urging her to continue her half-formed sentence. 

But she’d come all this way, walked through town in the dead of night, and she hadn’t even considered what she was going to say. And now she stood in front of him, a silent fool who couldn’t stop her eyes from searching his beautiful face. 

“I’m not sure what I—” She shook her head, cutting off her own words. “I just thought that I—” Again, she didn’t let herself finish. She huffed a breath as she tried to gather her thoughts and try one more time, but she was thrown off by the way the corner of his lips twitched.

“Swan,” he said softly, “would you like to come in?”

Emma chewed on her lip, trying to figure out how she could fight dragons with swords and face monsters and witches and that little brat  _ Peter Pan _ , but thirty seconds in the presence of this goddamn pirate and suddenly there wasn’t a coherent thought in her entire head. 

She nodded. 

Inside the room, everything was perfectly neat. The only thing that was out of place was the bed sheets, strewn and twisted as if she hadn’t been the only one who had a nightmare. It was so predictably  _ Killian _ —when did she start thinking of him as Killian?—that it almost made her laugh. 

“What’s on your mind, love?” he asked, and when she turned back to look at him, she was struck once again by how  _ perceptive _ he was. She could see it on his face, and if she wasn’t in—if she didn’t like him so much, it would’ve pissed her off. 

“I had this nightmare, or maybe it was a dream, I don’t know, and I felt kinda weird, and I just,” she paused, forcing a breath. “I wanted to see you.” She waited a beat before adding, “Is that okay?”

“Of course, love,” he replied, and the way his eyes softened and his lips shifted from a smirk into something so much more tender, she almost lost it. “I’m always happy to be of service, Swan.” Normally, a comment like that would’ve been accompanied by something teasing, perhaps an eyebrow quirk or a playful grin, but the word  _ tender _ returned to her mind and she just couldn’t make sense of anything. 

Her brain started to attack her again, and her arms moved to cross over her chest, but it was more protective of herself, more comforting, than defensive. “I’m not sure why I came, I just…” she trailed off, eyeing the door.

“I’m glad you did,” he said simply. There wasn’t a second of hesitation in his response, no contemplation or consideration for something that would make her stay. It was just the truth. And he wanted her to know it. 

She exhaled slowly, her arms dropping from around herself as her shoulders relaxed. “I know that we haven’t really…talked about anything since we came back from the past, and, you know, kind of made out outside of Granny’s, but I’m historically Not Good at this relationship stuff and I don’t even know how to do this, or even what I’m doing, but I  _ want _ to do this, which is absolutely crazy for me, but—”

“Swan,” he breathed, and he moved to stand directly in front of her until their faces were merely inches apart. “Whatever happens, it happens on your terms. You set the pace, you decide. I’m perfectly content to follow your lead. Even if you’re ‘not good’ at ‘relationship  _ stuff _ ’ as you’ve so brilliantly dubbed it.”

“My terms,” she repeated. 

“Aye.” Her eyes traced his face, finding not a single flaw. No deception, no manipulation. Just this beautiful man and his beautiful words. 

“If we do this, it’s a partnership. Whatever happens, it’s both of us deciding.”

He hadn’t expected these words, hope and surprise and  _ love _ painting his face. “As you wish, Swan.”

She couldn’t help it when her gaze moved to his lips, so close yet somehow impossibly far away. “Killian,” she murmured, and she almost missed the way his eyes flashed with  _ something _ before they moved towards each other, their lips meeting somewhere in the middle. 

**Author's Note:**

> Drop a comment to let me know how you liked it! Thanks for reading :)


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